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Originally Posted by FearThePenguin  .... I'm going to start a little experiment this week and see if I can correlate the amount of time spent in aerobic and anaerobic zones in relationship to my blood sugar. For one week, I'll do my regular routine which places my heartrate in and out of aerobic and anaerobic dozens of times over the course of 45 minutes with 9 minutes of that being the odd hybrid condition that seems to be unique to combat sports. I'll then allow 4 days to recover and ease into pure aerobic and do the same mearsurements for a week and see what I get. I'll graph it all out and send out results when I'm done. Thanks again! |
My understanding is that, when you are in the aerobic zone, your muscles use glucose in the blood stream and fat for energy. When you start exercising, it is mainly blood glucose, but fat becomes the main energy source after about 30 minutes. This is why aerobic exercise pulls blood sugar down very quickly, especially during the first half hour.
Because adequate oxygen is required for fat to be burned and there is a limited supply of glucose in the bloodstream, when you go into the anaerobic zone, muscle glycogen becomes the main source of energy. Your blood sugar is not affected when this glycogen is utilised because the glucose is used in the muscle in which it is stored. There is also a stress response that causes glycogen in the liver to be mobilised, which increases blood glucose. This why intense exercise usually causes blood glucose to go up.
I have been able to observe these effects during and after different types of exercise, like during a 5 hour tramp or after a 1 hour gym workout. But I don't think I would be able to keep track if I was going in and out of the aerobic/anearobic zones. The processes involved are not that clearly defined and the results are likely to be confusing. But I will be very interested to hear what you find.
